Politics of the Soul. A combination of personal commentary and portal to sites related to political philosophy. No loyalty here to contemporary political brand names such as conservative or liberal. I might even prefer "government of the soul", which, in both its connotations, is what will ultimately save us.

A student at Bard College reflects on his participation in Occupy Wall Street. Why does OWS exist? According to Dan Gettinger, because people are lonely and looking for a sense of community. In our hyper-individualistic culture, one of the few (and flawed) places left to find community is in a spontaneous and fleeting political activity.

My generation is one of extremes and totalities. We grew up defined by the trespasses of the last President, and now we watch as our confidence in this one seeps away. With a crushingly uncertain future we grasp at hope, looking to fill this void with promises.

Why is this? How is that we are so empty that we must be filled with language that is distilled into slogans and ideologically transparent? ...I think it is because we are lonely. A generation of drifters set loose by the misdeeds of those who came before. Around us we see everything being commodified and isolated. We value the world in terms of totalities, the cold language of polls. Discussion becomes debate. Politics becomes personal.

Occupy Wall St. has exposed us as a generation of reactionaries. This era is one of immediate responses instigated by the ceaseless swirl of the cyber world. The Internet, modern telecommunications and globalization outline our existence... The compression of information and language forces immediate reactions, instinctual expressions of sentiment. Instead of taking the time to think, our feelings gush into the abyss that is the Internet. And lost. ‘Once more into the breach!’ shouts the exhausted soldier and student alike.

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I teach them all the good I can, and recommend them to others from whom I think they will get some moral benefit. And the treasures that the wise men of old have left us in their writings I open and explore with my friends. If we come on any good thing, we extract it, and we set much store on being useful to one another. - Socrates, Memorabilia

What we maintain is that in none of the problems of life can men afford to lose sight of the storehouse bequeathed to them by the ancients. In the complexus of everything which differentiates man from the brute creation, the voice of antiquity must be heard...